Esther C Kane

If you’re a small business and you’re trying to market your website, you may find it difficult to compete with the larger companies. You know, the companies that have triple the number of employees that you have, the companies that have 10 more websites than you have, the companies with deeper pockets than you have.

So, how can you, as a small business, compete on the Internet? Easy – Long Tail Marketing!

Long Tail Marketing is the concept of targeting keyword phrases that are less competitive. True, these keyword phrases are also less popular. But the chances of your website getting on the first page of the search engines with the long tail keyword phrase is much greater. And let’s face it, if you’re not on the first page, you’re not going to get visitors from that keyword phrase.

I’ve been struggling for months to get a client of ours on the first page of Google for the phrase name tags. I can get him there at least once a day but I can’t seem to keep him there! It’s frustrating to say the least! So, I know the potential for the visitors to his site for that keyword phrase is high but at the same time, while I’m working on that highly competitive phrase I still need to get visitors to his website. And long tail marketing is an excellent SEO strategy.

Let me give you some stats based on the last 30 days…

Website #1	Competitive keyword phrase has an allintitle of 49,500 Number of visitors from this keyword phrase = 360 Position on Google – currently page 5 Position on Yahoo – currently page 1 The Long Tail keyword phrases have an allintitle of less than 1200 each Number of visitors from the long tail keyword phrases = 2100 Position on Google – currently page 1 Position on Yahoo – currently page 1
Website #2	Competitive keyword phrase has an allintitle of 128,900 Number of visitors from this keyword phrase = 210 Position on Google – currently page 12 Position on Yahoo – currently page 8 The Long Tail keyword phrases have an allintitle of less than 1200 each Number of visitors from the long tail keyword phrases = 4250 Position on Google – currently page 1 Position on Yahoo – currently page 2
Website #3	Competitive keyword phrase has an allintitle of 83,700 Number of visitors from this keyword phrase = 625 Position on Google – currently page 21 Position on Yahoo – currently page 18 The Long Tail keyword phrases have an allintitle of less than 1200 each Number of visitors from the long tail keyword phrases = 3810 Position on Google – currently page 1 Position on Yahoo – currently page 1

The numbers don’t lie. All these websites are getting MORE visitors from their long tail keyword phrases. It makes sense, their positions in the search engines for these long tail phrases are higher so the chances of getting visitors are higher.

You may be asking yourself, so why doesn’t every small business website follow the long tail marketing method? Well, there’s a catch. In order to get the larger number of visitors to your website, you need more pages. If a highly competitive keyword phrase on page 1 of Google can bring in 1000 visitors to your website, and a less competitive keyword phrase on page 1 of Google can bring in 50 visitors, then you need 20 pages, each one marketing one of these "less competitive (aka long tail) keyword phrases" in order to bring in the same number as the highly competitive keyword phrase.

And let’s face it, not many small business owners have the time to write so many pages. And not many small business owners have the money to pay copywriters for the service. But, as an SEO webmaster working specifically with small business owners I’m here to tell you that long tail marketing is your best, most effective strategy for website marketing. As your SEO firm to provide you with long tail keyword phrases, each month they should give you a few. And write – add new pages to your website. Write articles and post them on your blog, on Facebook. Let everyone on your Twitter account know about that article. It WILL bring in business and the side benefit is that the conversion rates are usually higher on the long tail keyword phrases. So, not only do they bring in visitors, but targeted visitors who are ready to buy.